Twelve - A Donut Within a Donut
Marta killed Harlan. She killed Granddad. Harlan hadn't committed suicide after all. He had been killed.
"All right." Was all Blanc said after Marta had filled him in on the whole story as requested.
It felt like a long and torturous eternity before they finally reached the house. Flora was already out of the car when it had barely stopped.
"Flora!" cried Marta. "Flora, wait, please!"
But she didn't wait, she didn't stop, she just burst into the house.
Her head was spinning, she didn't have enough air. Granddad...
She found herself standing before the portrait of him, staring up at him sadly.
"Hey Princess." She gritted her teeth at her father's voice behind her, and the stupid nickname. "What's wrong?"
"'What's wrong?' Really? Are you kidding me?" She spun around to face him. "As if things weren't bad enough, with what happened to Granddad, and the police showing up, and then I have to find out that you're cheating on Mom."
Richard sighed. "You know, huh?"
"Oh, yeah, I know."
"How'd you find out?"
"Doesn't matter. What matters is now I know. You should be ashamed - I know I am." Without another word she stormed away.
"Flora." She turned to see Ransom standing there. Clearly the police had brought him home.
She didn't say anything, just ran into his arms, burying her face in his chest. "Marta... Granddad... Medicine," she choked out.
"I know, I know," he said, rubbing her back, a surprisingly comforting gesture from him. "But don't worry, she won't get away with this - we'll make sure of that."
Marta stood before the family who had all been assembled in the living room, about to make her confession. She squirmed, unsure of how to start, unsure of how to tell them that she was the reason for Harlan's death, that she was responsible.
Flora still couldn't believe it. Sure, it had been an accident, but it was still so shocking. She stood off to the side, along with Blanc, who was looking over some document.
Finally, Marta spoke. "You've always been good to me. What I'm about to say isn't going to be easy, for me to say and for you to hear, and you're going to be upset. But I thought after what you've all gone through the last few days, you deserve, at least, to hear it from me."
"Excuse me!" Blanc burst into the room then, interrupting what Marta had been about to say. The hard truth. "You have not been good to her. You have treated her like shit! You tried to steal back a fortune that you lost. And that she deserves! You're a pack of vultures at the feast, knives out and beaks bloody! Well, you're not getting bailed out, not this time. Ms. Cabrera has decided not to renounce the inheritance."
"What?" cried everyone, including Marta.
"Furthermore, it will be my professional recommendation to the local authorities that the manner of death in the case of Harlan Thrombey is ruled as suicide. The case is closed. Thank you all for coming, goodbye." With that, he took Marta by the arm and led her out of the room, followed by Elliot and Wagner.
Flora's jaw dropped - she had never seen anyone stand up to her family like that before, and honestly, she was impressed. But also confused. The case was closed? When had they decided on that? Something was definitely missing.
She charged after Blanc as well. "Hey! What the hell was that, what's going on? No more secrets Blanc!"
"Indeed, Ms. Drysdale. Please, follow me."
"What-" He led her into the library where Marta was.
"Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?" Marta was just as flustered. "I just want to come clean, okay? It's over."
"Almost."
"Blanc, what are we doing?" Elliot said.
"I'm sorry. Officer Wager, keep the family out of this room, if you please. Get them out of the house if you can." Then he whispered something and sent Trooper Wagner on his way.
"Blanc."
"Yes sir?"
"Come on, what's all this drama?" Elliot asked.
"Indulge me."
"Blanc, I told Ransom, Ransom told you, and I'm telling you now: it is an immovable fact that I killed Harlan," cried Marta.
"Yes you did, yes he did, yes you are. But, but I spoke in the car about the hole in the centre of this donut-"
"Oh boy," sighed Elliot.
"-And what you and Harlan did on that fateful night seems at first glance to fill that hole perfectly. A donuts hole in a donut's hole. But we must look a little closer. And when we do we see that the donut hole has a hole in its centre. It is not a donut hole, but a smaller donut with its own hole, and our donut is not whole at all!"
"Anyone else getting hungry from all this donut talk?" Flora muttered.
"Blanc, I understand that this is amusing for you-" Elliot tried to interject.
"Why was I hired?!" Blanc cried. Then he turned and pointed at Flora. "Ms. Drysdale, care to enlighten us on that?"
"Uh." She was caught off guard. Now all eyes were on her. "Uh... I don't know... We don't know..."
"Bingo! Why would someone hire me?"
Flora thought back to a few days ago when she had first met Blanc and had thought exactly the same thing.
"Someone fishing for a crime to reverse the will," stated Elliot.
"But I was hired before the sealed will was read. So yes, the person must have known the contents of the will. But one step further, that same person must have known a crime was committed. And further, if the intent was to reverse Marta's inheritance, then they must have known Marta was responsible. An intriguing combination of factors. Someone who knew what Marta did, wanted to expose her, but could not reveal how they knew-"
"Fran!" Marta suddenly cried. "She was blackmailing me, she knew what I did."
"Yeah but Fran wanted money, ergo she did not want the crime exposed." Now Blanc was shedding his coat and rolling up his shirt sleeves thoughtfully.
"What if someone in the family caught Marta doing something suspicious?" said Elliot.
"But they would have had no reason not to speak up. The answer is not so simple. Now, with the entire solution in my field of view, the arc of this case is a tragedy of errors. Marta, it will not be easy for you to hear."
"Is it worse than it already is?" asked Floras.
"Yes, Ms. Drysdale, in many ways it is, I'm afraid. There is at least one truly guilty party behind it all. Guilty in the true sense of acting with malice and committing a heinous crime with selfish intent. Trooper Wagner."
"Trooper Wagner?" repeated Marta incredulously.
"No, no." Blanc shook his head as Trooper Wagner returned with someone else - Ransom.
"Marta, I'm so sorry, I told them everything. I figured it was up, I'm sorry."
"It's alright Ransom," Marta assured him. "It's alright, I'm glad you did."
"Not exactly everything though," cut-in Blanc.
"Is this about what Greatnana saw that night? She saw me and mistook me for Ransom."
"We'll get to that," Blanc promised. "In the meanwhile, Mr. Hugh Ransom Drysdale - you want to tell us all why you hired me?"
Duh duh duhhhh! Haha but we all knew it was coming ;) I felt like that was a good place to end this chapter.
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) We're nearing the end now!